A Peek At Our Week – Aspen – 11/27/23 – 12/ 01/23 – Holiday Program Preparations!

This week in Aspen we were busy practicing for our upcoming AMMS Holiday program! Line time lessons were full of Holiday Cheer as we practiced our lines, songs, and hand motions. At the same time, we reviewed proper stage etiquette and the expectations for standing on risers as we perform. All children agreed that safe hands, careful feet, quiet mouths (bubbles), and big smiles are what is expected while performing . The Aspen children rocked it! They have already brought so much Holiday joy and tears of happiness to their teachers eyes! They are absolutely adorable and amazing and this is only practice! You are all in for a real Holiday treat!!

In regards to what to wear , Aspen students need to have a long sleeved solid RED shirt brought in to school by next Friday, December 8!! The Aspen students will be decorating them with a special surprise for the show. Please have your child also wear nice dark colored pants, leggings, or skirt with their shirt the day of the program. We politely request no jeans! The Aspen class get to be “Rockin” Christmas Trees this year and we are looking forward to our performance! Thank you so much for all of the support you have all given/shown us this year! Ms. Angela and I appreciate our Aspen parents so much!

In Readers Workshop, the Cardinals practiced their reading (phonological awareness) skills as they worked on a complete the sentence worksheet. The Cardinals practiced following directions as we completed sentences with the word that made the most sense. Some of our word choices created some super silly sentences! The Cardinals also played ” Sight Word Showdown ” where a card containing a Sight word is held up and the Cardinal students verbally identify them. We are already on our third Sight word box!! The Chickadees continued practing their segmenting and decoding as they received a new phonetic reader booklet containing new sight words. Our Chickadees have all begun to show more confidence and fluency when decoding words and were a amazing with their Sight Words! The Chickadees also played “Sight Word Showdown! ” They also received a new Sight Word called once! We learned that it is super silly and doesn’t follow our typical phonetic rules! I mean….an O making the W sound!! The Chickadees found this hilarious and we had so much fun using it in sentences!

Decorating our classroom tree activity.

Transferring ornaments

Static Addition with the Stamp Game!! Combining numbers is fun!

Pinpricking Holiday pictures!

Library time with Ms. Lindsey!


Peek In Our Week ()()() Thee Buckeye Room ()()() Week Of November 27, 2023

Thee Buckeye Room Bulletin

Line Time:
Diligently practicing for the Christmas Show. Rockin it out!

Did You Know?:
Giraffes are 30 times more likely to get hit by lightning than people. True, there are only five well-documented fatal lightning strikes on giraffes between 1996 and 2010. But due to the population of the species being just 140,000 during this time, it makes for about 0.003 lightening deaths per thousand giraffes each year. This is 30 times the equivalent fatality rate for humans.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 15 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic in the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew)

Know Your Languages (Korean in January)

A Message From Mr. John (RIP Shane MacGowan)

A few thoughts on the video… How many guys are in this band? How many cigarettes were smoked during filming? Did you notice Matt Dillon is the police officer? Why does Kelly A keep telling me I can’t use this song for the Christmas Show?
If you want more, check out Jimmy Fallon and his guest singing a good version of this and explaining what a lock in in Ireland is on Christmas Eve.

Peek In The Classroom:

The last pre-reading material before reading. She is now reading the Hooked on Phonics series. This is an example of how fast things can move in the classroom.
She can now compose numbers with quantity and symbol. Do you see what patter she (pretty much) completed.
Look who is reading chapter books (Billy B. Brown). Notice the verbiage on her book mark.
She is working on a pre-reading material.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Christmas Show Practice

Letter Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Rhyming Word Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Next Language is Korean in January

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:
Weekly Themes:
Geography.. Landforms (peninsula/gulf)
Math.. Review Math Operations
Language.. Adverbs
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, Geo Cards

Next Week:
Weekly Themes:

Geography.. Landforms (straight/isthmus)
Math.. Review Math Operations
Language.. Review Parts of Speech
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, More Geo Cards

Synonym Of The Week: Not til 2024
Sight Words Of The Week: Not til 2024

Why do I give them a choice between silly and nice?

Future Happenings:
Bring Your Parent To School: Mondays and Wednesdays starting November 20, 2023… follow the link to sign up, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382628-buckeye#/
-Christmas Show:
Rehearsal- Wednesday December 13…6pm to 7pm NOT a dress rehearsal at Cuyahoga Falls High School
Christmas Show- Friday December 15
…6pm to 7:30pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School
-Pajama Day/Show and Tell: Thursday December 21, 2023
-Christmas Break: Friday December 22, 2023 returning January 9, 2024

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Wearing their shirts backwards in the new hot trend.
This guy is showing off his guns.
Being surprised when confronted with this face was rather scary, lol.
Girls showing off their flexibility skills. I said “NO THANK YOOOOOOOU”

Your Children Say The Darndest Things (I love my family):


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 11/27/23

Our Focus Lesson: Fish

We jumped right back into our Animal Classification lessons after the holiday, and studied fish this week! What makes a fish a fish? We learned that fish are vertebrates, they must live in the water, they breathe using gills, they’re covered in scales, they’re cold blooded, and they lay jelly like eggs (which means they’re sticky).

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

We are busy in the classroom preparing for the upcoming holidays! Children started creating gifts for their parents (shhh… we won’t tell!), and are practicing daily for the Christmas Show! Our theme for the Christmas Show is snow. Your child will need to wear clothing that is blue, white, or gray, and a scarf. We will provide your child with a snowflake headband to wear for the show.

Curriculum Spotlight: ASL

We always love the Fridays when we have an ASL lesson. This week we learned how to sign various holiday theme signs such as reindeer, sleigh, toys, presents, and Santa! We also reviewed some important communication signs such as more, help, please, thank you, and I Love You.

Signing “sleigh”!

Peek into Work Time!

This Preschooler is working with one of our I Spy boxes. These boxes contain various small objects, the child then sorts the objects by isolating the beginning sound and matching the same sound.
This Preschooler is doing so well with isolating beginning sounds, that she is now ready for our Sound Pouches. With Sound Pouches we assist the child with associating the letter sound to the symbol. After they have a solid understanding of that concept, the pouches also contain pictures of various objects, and the child is now matching the object to the letter.
This preschooler started reading this week! She is working with Phonics Folders to practice blending letter sounds together in order to read the word.
This preschooler is working with our CVC pictures and words. Each set focuses on one vowel sound, and the child reads the word then matches it to the corresponding picture.
This Kindergartener was introduced to Consonant Blends this week! He’s learning that two consonants together can make a new sound!

Peek into Next Week!

Focus Lesson: Amphibians

Important Dates:

December 13: Christmas Show Rehearsal

December 15: Christmas Show

December 21: Pajama Day

December 22-January 7: Winter Break

January 8: School Resumes


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 11/20/23

Focus Lesson: Thanksgiving and Gratefulness

This short week, we focused our lessons on Thanksgiving and what it means to be grateful. We discussed the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Native Americans, which led us into our discussion on gratefulness. We brainstormed all of the things we are grateful for which includes family, friends, and pets! We also talked about yummy Thanksgiving foods and our family traditions. It was a super fun short week here in the Blossoms classroom!

Thanksgiving Inspired Work Activities!

This preschooler is practicing table setting.
This preschooler is using a ladel to move pom poms from one container to another.
We learned that Native Americans did not write messages using letters the way that we do now, and that they communicated through pictures. This preschooler is practicing copy writing, by copying the symbols at the top of the page.
This preschooler is using a baster to move water from one container to another. I wonder if the children will recognize this kitchen tool if you use it this weekend.
This preschooler is grasping feathers, just one of the many ways we strengthen the hand muscles for writing.
This Kindergartener is practicing reading sentences and matching the sentence to its corresponding picture.
This preschooler is practicing his addition facts with turkeys!
This preschooler is tonging Indian Corn and sorting them by color.
These Kindergarteners are working together to read the Thanksgiving inspired word and match it to the picture.
This preschooler is creating a turkey craft.
We also made these adorable turkeys to take home!

The Time of Year to Spend with Family and Friends.

We ended the week by spending time with our friends from Aspen and Buckeye! We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and enjoyed a special snack of popcorn and pretzels!

“Gobble Gobble!”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ms. Sam and I wish your family a wonderful holiday, and hope you are able to spend this time with family and friends. We also hope that you get a moment to relax! We are so thankful for all of you! – Ms. Tonya

Peek into Next Week:

Focus Lesson: Fish

Important Dates:

December 13: Christmas Show Rehearsal

December 15: Christmas Show

December 21: Pajama Day

December 22-January 7: Winter Break

January 8: School Resumes


A Peek At Our Week- 11/20/23 – 11/24/23- Table Manners And Place Setting

This week in Aspen we discussed how we behave at the dinner table with our Table Manners lesson! During Line Time we took turns sharing “What to do” and “What not to do” at the dinner table! All the children agreed that proper manners included lots of please and thank yous!! They also talked a lot about the importance of sitting in a chair appropriately and using eating utensils correctly. We also read How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. We sure had a lot of fun discussing all the silly and rude things the Dinosaurs did in the book. Our Aspen parents sure have some super polite children!!

This week the Aspen students also practiced how to set a place setting at the dinner table with our Table Setting activity. They are pros! If you need a helper this Thanksgiving , ask your child to show you what they learned!

Extensions with the Red Rods and Number Rods!

Building the Binomial Cube on the lid with no guide!!

Discrimination of height with the Cylinder Blocks.

Labeling the Continent Map!

Building the Trinomial Cube on the table!

A big thank you to Lily for bringing in a special Thanksgiving Turkey craft!!

Coloring our Thankful Wheel project! We got to draw or write all the things we are thankful for!

Watching The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie with our friends from Buckeye and Cherry Blossom!!!


A Peek At Our Week – Aspen – 11/13/23 – 11/17/23 – Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims and Native Americans

Hello Aspen families! My apologies for not posting a blog for quite awhile! I got locked out of my WordPress account when they updated their security policy! Nevertheless, I am logged in, verified, and our Blog can once again be posted!! Please enjoy a massive amount of photos at the end of this week’s blog as part of my apology!

This week in Aspen it was all about our continent North America, Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Native Americans. The students in Aspen have been studying the locations and names of the countries in North America for the past few weeks. However, this week we began to take a look at the history of our continent and the U.S.A focusing on our upcoming holiday. In preparation for Thanksgiving next week we decided to discuss why we celebrate Thanksgiving. Aspen learned that long ago there was a group of people named the Pilgrims that lived in England. The Pilgrims held certain beliefs that were different from the King’s! The King had “Absolute Power” and you could not disagree with the king or you would be punished! The Pilgrims believing strongly held to their beliefs and decided to do something really brave! They decided to leave England for the New World (North America). We learned that the Pilgrims set sail across the Atlantic in a ship called The Mayflower. When the Pilgrims arrived in the new world they only found wilderness (trees, plants, and animals).There were no houses for them to move into, there were no stores like Giant Eagle or Acme to buy food! The Pilgrims had to build their own homes using wood they chopped down from trees in the forest, they had to grow their own crops, and hunt if they wanted meat! Aspen then discussed how the Pilgrims had a very hard and difficult time adjusting to their new environment! The soil for growing crops was different than theirs in England, there were different types of plants and berries (hard to know what was safe) , and they had to work hard planting, harvesting, hunting, and building to survive! Their first season was difficult, many Pilgrims did not make it through the winter! As the Pilgrims worked hard to survive they eventually realized that they shared their environment with a group of people called the Native Americans a tribe called the Wampanoag! The Wampanoag helped teach the Pilgrims how to survive in North America! As a result, during the Fall harvest the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag held a three day feast together celebrating the harvest thankful that they would have enough food and supplies to last the winter! Therefore, establishing our tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving! The children in Aspen used our puzzle maps and our Painted Globe to trace the Pilgrim’s journey while learning all about the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts! We also watched a Scholastic video on YouTube called Pilgrim Life with Scholastic News! We got to see what their daily life was like!

Next week we have a two day school week to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday! Our group lessons will be all about Table Manners! If your child attends school on Tuesday, we will have a Sharing Day! Your child is invited to bring in one item from home to share and discuss during Line Time! Your child’s sharing item should be able to fit in their bookbag and should be limited to one item. Pretend weapons of any kind are prohibited including Lightsabers!

In Readers Workshop both groups have continued their work with segmenting and decoding! Cardinals are continuing their work with Phonograms and Sight Words. They have been reading paragraphs and booklets utilizing their knowledge from group lessons to practice fluency. The Chickadees have continued their work with decoding focusing on booklets (Readers) with new Sight Words weekly! Next week there will be no reading group!

Tweezing corn kernels!

Grinding our corn kernels into cornflour like the Pilgrims with a mortar and pestle!

Fun with the Tree Puzzle!

Sensorial Extensions with the Knobless Cylinders.

Labeling the countries in North America.

Moveable Alphabet Fun and copy writing the words onto lined paper!


Peek In Our Week *** Thee Buckeye Class *** Week Of November 13, 2023

Thee Buckeye Room Bulletin

Line Time:
Native Americans/Thanksgiving-  We talked about Native Americans and how Indians were named Indians.  On student informed us that Christopher Columbus landed in North America but thought he was in India.  Hence, the name.  We talked about how Native Americans were indigenous.  Then the Pilgrims came over from Europe on a ship called the Mayflower.  The pilgrims had a rough go of it at the beginning because they didn’t have enough blankets or food.  They could not just go to Target or Giant Eagle to get supplies because at that time there were just woods and wild life. 

Food For Thought:
Why are things transported on land called a shipment but things transported by boat called cargo? MIND BLOWN!

Thoughts From Mr. John (Ear Bug):

This is the song. It was filmed at my villa in Greece when I wasn’t using it. The Cure asked. I said yes.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 15 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic in the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew)

Know Your Languages (Hebrew):

Specials Scene(Music):

Frieda Frog saying hello to the children at music.

Peek In The Classroom:

She is working on the math material called the number rods with numbers. The Number Rods help children learn the names of numbers, and identify the symbol and their sequence and learn to correctly associate between the spoken number and its quantity. Children grow to understand that each rod represents a unique quantity and that each number is represented by a single object as a whole, separate from others.
Children love learning about geography while perfecting fine motor skills. She traced the continents and poked (with a large push pin) and placed the continents to the map. Poking improves fine motor skills in toddlers while also getting familiar with the shape and boundaries of each continent.
The Montessori Change Game, also called the Exchange Game, is a classic Montessori math activity. The purpose of the Change Game is to give children the opportunity to experience how small quantity categories can be exchanged for larger quantity categories and still total the same amount. Ask your child what the magic number is.
Cards are placed at the top of the tree and read slowly. Once the first word/nonsense word is read, the card is slid up the trunk reading all the words and deciding if they are real words or not. This material gives the child plenty of work with the changing middle vowel sound that often needs a lot of practice. This is a popular pre-reading work.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- The Game!

Letter Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Rhyming Word Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Next Language is Korean

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:
Weekly Themes:
Geography.. Ohio
Math.. Fractions
Language.. Adverbs
Geometry.. Large Hexagon Box

Next Week:
Weekly Themes:

Geography.. biggest to smallest (Galaxy to street address)
Math.. Fractions
Language.. No School
Geometry.. No School

Synonym Of The Week: Not til 2024
Sight Words Of The Week: Not til 2024

I thought it would make a cool album cover.

Future Happenings:
Bring Your Parent To School: Mondays and Wednesdays starting November 20, 2023… follow the link to sign up, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382628-buckeye#/
Thanksgiving Break: No school from Wednesday November 22 thru November 26. Returning Monday November 27.

-Christmas Show:
Rehearsal- Wednesday December 13…6pm to 7pm NOT a dress rehearsal at Cuyahoga Falls High School
Christmas Show- Friday December 15
…6pm to 7:30pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School
-Christmas Break: Friday December 22, 2023 returning January 9, 2024

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Another set of twins.
Another example of you just don’t ask why a student puts a backpack on their head. But someone thinks it is funny.
She got tired of waiting for me to fix her binder pages so she taught herself.
He said it was so easy he can roll a mat with his eyes closed.

Your Children Say The Darndest Things (my little sister):


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 11/13/23

Focus Lesson: Reptiles

We continued our vertebrate animal study this week by learning all about Reptiles.

What makes a reptile a reptile? Reptiles are cold blooded, have dry scaly skin, lay soft shelled eggs, (most) do not take care of their babies, and they breathe with lungs. We learned that there are so many neat things that reptiles can do! Snakes can smell with their tongues. Chameleons can change color depending on how they are feeling. Some lizards can detach their tails and grow new ones. However, our favorite reptile to learn about was the sea turtle! We really loved reptile week!

Preschool Corner:

This preschooler is copy writing, using the month label on our calendar!
This preschooler is working with our Colored Bead Bars. She is matching quantity to symbol.
Look at that proud smile as this preschooler works with our Spindle Box to practice quantity and symbol.

Kindergarten Corner:

Another proud smile from this Kindergartener as he works with our Square Chains from the Bead Cabinet. He is practicing the multiples for 9, 8, 7, and 6!

Operation Christmas Child:

We participated in Operation Christmas Child on Friday. We were able to pack a shoebox full of gifts, such as fun toys, school supplies, and personal care items and a letter that we wrote! These boxes will be delivered to children in need around the world! We are so grateful that we were able to help others this holiday season!

Come work with us!!!

Bring Your Parent to Work Days begin on Monday! If you are able to, sign up for a time slot on one of our allotted days and come work with us! Visits are approximately 30 minutes, and you will be able to observe the classroom as a whole for about 15 minutes and then work alongside your child for another 15-20 minutes. It is a wonderful way to experience our classroom setting and spend some very special time with your child! Sign up at the link below!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382631-cherry#/

Peek into Next Week:

Focus Lesson: Thankfulness

November 22-24: No School! Happy Thanksgiving!

December 13: Christmas Show Rehearsal

December 15: Christmas Show

December 22-January 7: Winter Break! School resumes Monday, January 8th.


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 11/6/23

Focus Lesson: Animal Classification – Mammals & Birds

We have continued our study of the Animal Kingdom over the past two weeks. Our Blossoms are currently studying groups of Vertebrates. We started with Mammals and Birds!

What makes a mammal a mammal? We learned that mammals are warm blooded, covered in hair or fur, breathe air with their lungs, give birth to live babies, take care of their babies, and babies drink their mother’s milk.

What makes a bird a bird? We learned that birds are warm blooded, covered in feathers, breathe air with their lungs, hatch from hard shelled eggs, take care of their babies, and don’t have teeth – they have beaks!

With each of these classification studies, the children have been introduced to different species of mammals and birds, as well as the parts of one specific animal. For mammals we learned about the parts of a horse, and for birds we were introduced to the parts of a bird in general but encouraged to look through our various bird books to see how birds look different.

These two children are working together to determine if an animal is a mammal or not a mammal. Just one of the ways we review the characteristics of animals!
This child is working with our Mammal 3 Part Cards under the watchful eye of Douglas, the goat (who is a mammal by the way).
This child is working with our Bird 3 Part Cards. All of these birds within this work can be see around your backyard at home or around the school!

Our Favorite Visitor – Charlotte

Mr. John surprised us with a visit from Charlotte, the tarantula and one of his hissing cockroaches. As a group, we reviewed what we know about arachnids and insects while observing these animals more up close. Thank you Mr. John!

Peek into Work Time:

All smiles for Dynamic Addition! We’ve started practicing carrying over with our Equation of the Day!
Check our those beautiful cursive u’s!
Such a beautiful watercolor painting!

Peek into Next Week!

Focus Lesson: Reptiles

November 17: Operation Christmas Child Packing Party

November 22-24: No School – Thanksgiving Holiday

Come work with us! Bring Your Parent to Work Days! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382631-cherry#/


Peek In Our Week ::: Thee Buckeye Room ::: Week Of November 6, 2023

Thee Buckeye Room Bulletin

Line Time:
Dinosaurs-
  We traveled back in time and discovered some fascinating things about certain dinosaurs.  We learned that dinosaurs no longer exist and that they are extinct.  We know dinosaurs exist because scientist found their bones or fossils.  From these fossil we saw that some teeth were long and sharp to tear flesh from it’s prey which belonged to meat eaters or carnivores (T Rex).  Some teeth were flat for grinding plants, leaves, and branches and belonged to plant eaters or herbivores (Brachiosauras).

Dino from the Flintstones

Did You Know:
Why Swiss Cheese Has Holes? Carbon dioxide given off by the bacteria used to make Swiss cheese creates the air bubbles in the process, resulting in those holes that we refer to in the industry as “eyes.” The size of the eyes does not have an effect on the taste of the cheese and can be controlled through temperature, storage time and acidity.

My children say Swiss Cheese smells like stinky feet. What are your thoughts on Swiss Cheese?

November Birthday: The Montessori Classroom prides itself on having a multiage cclassroom. Here is our newest 5 year old student.

Message From Mr. John (Star Struck):

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 14 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic in the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog)

Know Your Languages (Tagolog):

Specials Spot (Art):

The old hand turkey craft.

Peek In The Classroom:

She is working on consonant/vowel blends. This will help her with advanced reading.
The key purpose of the Moveable Alphabet is to prepare children for writing, reading, and spelling. The child’s use of the material progresses from single words, to phrases, and eventually to stories. In this way, the Moveable Alphabet teaches children how to symbolize their own thoughts, and begin to write creatively.
She is working on the memory game where I show her a number and she goes across the room the retrieve the correct number of sticks. Memory game incorporates movement, elements of suspense, control, and academic learning. Look at her expression of excitement.
She decided to “go all in” with her work on sand paper letters by taking out all of the letters.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Pilgrims

Letter Of The Week- M m

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bop

Next Language is Hebrew

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:

Weekly Themes:
Geography.. OH IO
Math.. Fractions
Language.. Adjectives
Geometry.. Small Hexagon Box

Next Week:
Weekly Themes:

Geography.. Ohio
Math.. Fractions
Language.. Adverbs
Geometry.. Large Hexagon Box

Synonym Of The Week: Not til 2024
Sight Words Of The Week: been down

A “nice” pic with a bit of spunk from the kinders.

Future Happenings:
Operation Christmas Child: Friday November 17, 2023
Bring Your Parent To School: Mondays and Wednesdays starting November 20, 2023… follow the link to sign up, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382628-buckeye#/
Thanksgiving Break: No school from Wednesday November 22 thru November 26. Returning Monday November 27.

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Pretty In Pink.
Did they call each other to plan on wearing the matching pants?
She is practicing dance. I’d be walking with a cane if I attempted this.
Quite the ladies man.

Your Child Says The Darndest Things (My Brother’s Birthday):